Under this title, the newspaper "Evening Almaty" published an article about a student of our college - Madina Bostambaeva. Below is the text of the article.
"Memories of Almaty Residents" is a collection of real stories of residents of our city. Stories about first love, youth, happy and sad moments of life - the book contains 300 heart-touching stories of residents of the southern capital.
The author of the collection is a young girl, screenwriter, marketer, blogger Madina Bostambaeva. She has been honing her skills since 2018, writing scripts for films and TV series.
In addition, Madina is a talented marketer, videographer, photographer, and now a writer.
As a screenwriter, Madina has a habit of collecting and recording real stories from people's lives. The most ordinary professional habit became the first impetus for writing the book "Memories of Almaty Residents".
A correspondent from the newspaper “Evening Almaty” attended the presentation of Madina Bostambaeva’s collection and collected interesting information about the book and its author.
– The book contains a large number of real stories. I spent three years writing “Memories of Almaty Residents” and during this time I managed to communicate with many people. I have well-developed communication skills – I could calmly approach a passerby on the street and ask: “What do you regret most?” One day I was walking home and I saw a girl walking by, it would be nice to talk to her. We chatted, cried together on a bench and subsequently became close friends. The idea for the book came to me in the summer of 2020, when I was writing a script for a feature film for an Irish film company. Then I thought it would be nice to go on a round-the-world trip and make a documentary. A year later, I opened my notes and discovered that I had collected a lot of interesting stories. I continued collecting them and published a book, - Madina shared.
Despite the fact that the young author has achieved great heights, one should not forget that she is still a student. Accordingly, the author faced certain difficulties when publishing the book.
- Let's start with the fact that I am an ordinary person, a student. There were no difficulties when writing the book, they appeared later - in financial terms. Imagine - I signed a contract for several million, and I only have a scholarship in my pocket. There were huge risks.
Do you know how to lose weight quickly? Become an entrepreneur! For two weeks I did not sleep at all, at night I was haunted by thoughts - where to get another two million, - laughs Madina.
They even wanted to sue the author of “Memories of Almaty Residents”:
- Yes, they wanted to sue me because I used a person's name. He shared his story, gave his name, which I wrote in the book. When the book came out, he was very angry, I felt ashamed, but we solved this problem.
The girl also studies marketing, which, by the way, helped her a lot when publishing the book.
– I started studying marketing in the summer of 2020, when I got a job at a coffee shop. I planned to become an SMM specialist, a targetologist, bought marketing courses and started studying it. I am from the city of Shchuchinsk, at some point the thought occurred to me – I need to leave here urgently. I wanted to move to Almaty - it was the summer of 2021. So I entered the Adilet College, which gave me a lot of impressions and emotions. I don’t know how my life would have turned out if I hadn’t entered this institution. I would probably have stayed in Shchuchinsk and worked as a cook somewhere. Therefore, I want to say with great confidence: life in Almaty is cool!
The success of the book exceeded all expectations. The first edition of the collection of 1000 copies was sold out in five days. Orders for the book come not only from Kazakhstan, but also from the CIS countries and Europe. At the moment, "Memories of Almaty Residents" are not available in the bookstores of the southern capital.
– As a marketer, I used all channels of interaction for promotion, and, of course, TikTok. There is a very large audience there, and my videos “flew” all the way to New York. It happened that in the morning I woke up and saw messages like: “I am from Turkey, I want to buy your book, I pay for delivery.” It was very nice.
Madina personally brought the books to her fans from Kyrgyzstan. The famous Kazakh blogger Eldana (Eldana FourEyes) helped her with this.
- We met Eldana in Almaty. I told her that I was publishing a book, she was very happy for me. At that time, there were a lot of orders coming from Kyrgyzstan, and Eldana has her own cafe in Bishkek. We used it as a pick-up point.. When I was crossing the border, the head of the checkpoint stopped me and said: "I recognized you. I want to buy your book." Can you imagine? People came to the cafe and bought the book.
Once I got lost in Bishkek, I had neither money nor a card. I called Eldana, she invited me to spend the night at her place. But in ten hours I was supposed to have a meeting with representatives of "Meloman". It was a dilemma - to spend the night with my childhood idol or go back to Almaty for the meeting. I chose the second option.
Madina is a versatile person, she loves to study and master new skills. The girl claims that she spends one year learning one profession.
– I spend every year on mastering a new profession. In 2018, I studied screenwriting, later I mastered psychology, marketing, design. I want to spend this year on blogging.
My ultimate goal is to film a series, the script for which I wrote two years ago.
According to Madina, her source of inspiration is people, as well as her own thoughts and ideas. She loves each chapter of her book in a special way. However, there are stories that moved Madina the most - these are the second and thirty-third. There is also a story that was not included in the collection, but Madina shared it at the presentation without naming names.
– In May 2022, I needed a graphics tablet. I went to OLX, found a tablet that suited me, and wrote to the seller. He invited me to his home. While the guy was setting up my gadget, we got to talking, and he gave me a 90% discount. I didn’t add his story because it was too sad.
At the time of our meeting, he had been suffering from depression for three years. He had once dated a girl he loved very much. One day, after an accident, he fell into a coma for three years, and when he came out of the coma, he learned that his girlfriend had committed suicide.
According to Madina, she wants to continue the Estelikter project, the product of which was the book "Memories of Almaty Residents". By the way, there is a QR code on the cover of the book, by clicking on which anyone can tell their story to Madina.
At the book presentation, Madina shared two pieces of news. She announced the opening of a new pre-order for the book in Kazakhstan and around the world. The second piece of news is that Madina launched her own clothing brand called Uide.